I'm at Chicago's Intelligentsia location near Millenium Park. Open only a few years, it's already been completely redesigned since I last spent any amount of time here. To be honest, I liked the interior design better before. However, the bar itself has been tweaked to incorporate a wide variety of brewing methods with maximum efficiency. It has something of an aspect of Kopp's fountain at full tilt. And indeed, on this blustery Great Lakes day when even I couldn't get excited about being outdoors, they are at full tilt. I think the guy who was sitting in front of me on the Metra in from Highland Park might be here. Wouldn't that be odd? All roads lead to Intelligentsia...
I see pourover, Synesso espresso, one Clover that hasn't been used while I've been here, and some odd contraption in front of me that looks vaguely drug paraphernalia-ish. (I guess that outs me as a coffee Philistine--someone send me back to Bruegger's where I belong!) I'm taking a pound of Zirikana, Rwanda: Bufcafe ($17.00--interestingly, they have to charge sales tax on pounds of coffee here) home with me.
